scholarly journals Informality, innovation, and knowledge co-creation: characterising collaborative creativity and adaptation in rural development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Tasker
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Northern Kenya ◽  
Informal Knowledge ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Knowledge Dynamics ◽  
Analytical Frameworks

This article characterises informal knowledge creation and co-creation between development and pastoralist actors, drawing on qualitative data gathered during an in-depth case study in Northern Kenya. Using thematic analysis, this article identifies three intersecting narratives: knowledge and exchange, barriers and drivers, and risk and uncertainty. These concepts are interpreted using wider literature on knowledge dynamics and co-creation to evaluate the suitability of existing analytical frameworks for further research on pastoralist development. The study results highlight the value of cross-cultural informal knowledge co-creation for pastoralist development, and the need for more robust future research.

scholarly journals Collect Your Happiness: A Case Study of Using Positive Psychology Principles in Technology Design (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lekai Zhang ◽  
Shouqian Sun ◽  
Kejun Zhang ◽  
Kevin Wolterink ◽  
Baixi Xing
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Multimedia Database ◽  
Technology Design ◽  
Interactive Applications ◽  
Future Technology ◽  
Human Happiness ◽  
The Difference

BACKGROUND More and more of our daily activities depend on smartphones and applications. Thus, an increasing number of studies are interested in whether interactive applications can be used to improve happiness of individuals. OBJECTIVE The study aimed to develop and test a digital application designed for happiness. METHODS This paper presents an application called Collect Your Happiness (CYH) that is based on some positive psychology principles. It can not only enhance people’s happiness by collecting their daily happy moments, but provide small tasks to improve their happiness levels. A cross-cultural measurement between the Chinese and Dutch was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of this intervention by SHS, SWLS, PGWBI, and MAAS. In addition, collected moments were coded based on Selig- man’s PERMA model to analyze the cultural differences. RESULTS Results show that CYH can help people from both countries improve their happiness. The Chinese tended to find their happiness in relationships (R) with their friends and family, however, the Dutch tended to search for meaning (M) and engagement (E) in their lives. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we developed an application that provided recording positive things, reminders for the past happy moments and tasks for users to gain happiness. The CYH successfully enhance the happiness of the cross-cultural users for four weeks. We also explored the difference of happiness between the Dutch and the Chinese based on Seligman’s PERMA model, and established a multimedia database of happiness for future research. Despite some limitations, most users found the application helpful to improve their happiness. By directly measuring subjective and multidimensional perspectives of happiness, there is potential to more successfully promote people’s happiness. Overall, our study not only complement existing positive psychological interventions that enhance human happiness, but it also suggests novel ways of applying positive psychology principles in the future technology design.

Implementing strategic responses in the COVID-19 market crisis: a study of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guydeuk Yeon ◽  
Paul C. Hong ◽  
Elangovan N. ◽  
Divakar G. M.
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Performance Outcomes ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Strategic Responses ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Medium Enterprises

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies. This paper aims to examine how India's SMEs implement their strategic responses in this crisis. Design/methodology/approach The study uses dynamic capability theory to explore the strategic responses of SMEs. Strategy implementation theory helps to explain how they implement innovative practices for outcomes. A research model defines the COVID-19 challenges, strategic responses and performance outcomes. The study reports the findings of an initial pilot study of 75 firms and follow-up case study results in the context of COVID-19. Findings Firms choose their approaches according to their perceived market risks. Case studies illustrate that firms display diverse attitudes depending on their strategic direction, leadership vision and organizational culture. They achieve different outcomes by implementing specific styles of risk management practices (e.g. risk-averting, risk-taking and risk-thriving). Research limitations/implications Although the study context is Indian SMEs, the findings suggest meaningful lessons for other emerging economies in similar crisis events. The propositions may be extended to future research in broad contexts. Practical implications Even in the extraordinary COVID-19 market crisis, SMEs with limited resources display their strategic potential by recognizing their unique capabilities, translating them into effective actions and achieving desirable outcomes. Social implications In the COVID-19 pandemic, top leaders' mental attitude, strategic perspective and routine practices are contagious. Positive leadership motivates both internal and external stakeholders with an enormous level of collaboration. Originality/value This rare study of Indian SMEs provides a theoretical framework for designing a pilot survey and conducting a case study of multiple firms. Based on these findings, testable propositions are articulated for future research in diverse organizational and national contexts.

Agile Teams in Digital Media

2020 ◽  
pp. 340-359
Author(s):  
Rachel Ralph ◽  
Patrick Pennefather
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Reflective Practitioner ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Master's Program ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Agile Practices ◽  
Media Environments

As we move towards the third decade of the 21st century, the development of emerging technologies continues to grow alongside innovative practices in digital media environments. This chapter presents a comparative case study of two teams (Team A and Team B) in a professional master's program during a 13-week, project-based course. Based on the role of documentation and the reflective practitioner, team blogs representing learner experiences of Agile practices were analyzed. This case study chapter focused on one blog post of a mid-term release retrospective. The results of this case study are framed around Derby and Larson's (2006) Agile retrospectives framework, including: set the stage, gather data, generating insights, deciding what to do, and closing the retrospective. The case study results suggest the need for public documentation of retrospectives and how this can be challenging with non-disclosure agreements. Also, the authors identify the importance of being a reflective practitioner. Future research on educational and professional practices needs to be explored.

scholarly journals Tag analysis as a tool for investigating information behaviour: comparing fan-tagging on Tumblr, Archive of Our Own and Etsy

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludi Price ◽  
Lyn Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Behaviour ◽  
The Third ◽  
Fan Communities

PurposeThis article describes the third part of a three-stage study investigating the information behaviour of fans and fan communities, the first stage of which is described in the study by Price and Robinson (2017).Design/methodology/approachUsing tag analysis as a method, a comparative case study was undertaken to explore three aspects of fan information behaviour: information gatekeeping; classifying and tagging and entrepreneurship and economic activity. The case studies took place on three sites used by fans–Tumblr, Archive of Our Own (AO3) and Etsy. Supplementary semi-structured interviews with site users were used to augment the findings with qualitative data.FindingsThese showed that fans used tags in a variety of ways quite apart from classification purposes. These included tags being used on Tumblr as meta-commentary and a means of dialogue between users, as well as expressors of emotion and affect towards posts. On AO3 in particular, fans had developed a practice called “tag wrangling” to mitigate the inherent “messiness” of tagging. Evidence was also found of a “hybrid market economy” on Etsy fan stores. From the study findings, a taxonomy of fan-related tags was developed.Research limitations/implicationsFindings are limited to the tagging practices on only three sites used by fans during Spring 2016, and further research on other similar sites are recommended. Longitudinal studies of these sites would be beneficial in understanding how or whether tagging practices change over time. Testing of the fan-tag taxonomy developed in this paper is also recommended.Originality/valueThis research develops a method for using tag analysis to describe information behaviour. It also develops a fan-tag taxonomy, which may be used in future research on the tagging practices of fans, which heretofore have been a little-studied section of serious leisure information users.

scholarly journals Comparison of Conflict Management Style Between Malaysian and Thai Employees: A Case Study in Top Glove Corporation

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-220
Author(s):  
Muhammad Amsal Sahban ◽  
Qaiser Abbas
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Management ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Management Style ◽  
Task Conflict ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Test Analysis ◽  
Conflict Styles ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Thai Experience

Objective: This study investigated the fundamental beliefs regarding cross-cultural differences in conflict styles. Methodology: The sample consisted of 46 employees from 2 different countries between Malaysia and Thailand.   T test analysis was used to investigate the effect of conflict styles on both Malaysia and Thai employees.  Results: Findings revealed that the avoiding and compromising styles are generally the most preferred by both Malaysian and Thai employees; accommodating and collaborating are the next preference, followed by competing. Competing is preferred by Malaysian workers rather than Thai workers.  While, Thai employees use more collaborating style rather than Malaysian Employee. We also found that Thai employees rely more on comprising style than Malaysian employees do.  Finally, the meaning of three of the five styles is different from Malaysian and Thai employees: only avoiding and accommodating conflict styles are interpreted similarly by both groups.  Therefore, we conclude that both Malaysian and Thai experience higher levels of task conflict as they use more avoiding style in their workplace.  Areas for future research are considered to get a further finding of this research.

scholarly journals How do industry 4.0 technologies influence organisational change? An empirical analysis of Italian SMEs

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Cimini ◽  
Albachiara Boffelli ◽  
Alexandra Lagorio ◽  
Matteo Kalchschmidt ◽  
Roberto Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Technology Implementation ◽  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Multiple Case Study ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Job Profile

PurposeThis article aims to investigate the organisational implications of adopting Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, giving specific attention to operations. The paper addresses these implications in two directions: organisational prerequisites for, and consequences of, I4.0 technologies.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a multiple case study of Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in manufacturing. Ten case studies have been developed through interviews, company visits and secondary data collection.FindingsThe multiple case study results show that: (1) a lean organisational structure supports effective adoption of I4.0 technologies; (2) introducing such technologies is linked to developing a new kind of job profile (i.e. the “Autonomous Operative Job Profile”); and (3) higher levels of technology adoption create a higher need for non-technical competences.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of this research relates to the highly heterogeneous maturity levels of the sampled companies, due to the relative newness of the I4.0 paradigm. Future research could, therefore, longitudinally analyse the technology integration process within organisations.Practical implicationsThis research provides preliminary evidence about how organisations and technologies co-evolve, thus suggesting that managers should co-design these areas. It also demonstrates the extreme importance of designing a structured process and a clear set of human resource management tools to favour SME organisational development.Originality/valueThe study is built upon a conceptual framework derived from the sociotechnical perspective that analyses the interconnections between technology implementation and organisational change. From the results, three research propositions are derived to be tested on a larger scale.

Fuzzy-Based Approach for Reducing the Impacts of Climate Changes on Agricultural Crops

2017 ◽  
pp. 272-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed M. Gadallah ◽  
Assem H. Mohammed
Keyword(s):  
Climate Changes ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Planting Dates ◽  
Third Phase ◽  
First Case ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Future Research Directions

Climate changes play a significant role in the crops plantation process. Such changes affect the suitability of planting of many crops in their traditional plantation dates in a given place. In contrary, many of such crops become more suitable for planting at other new dates in their traditional places or in other new places regarding the climate changes. This chapter presents a fuzzy-based approach for optimizing crops planting dates with the ongoing changes in climate at a given place. The proposed approach incorporates four phases. The first phase is concerned with climate data preparation. And the second phase is concerned with Defining suitability membership functions. While in third phase is responsible for automatic fuzzy clustering. Finally, the fourth phase is responsible for fuzzy selection and optimization for the more suitable plantation dates for each crop. This chapter consists of an introduction, related works, the proposed approach, a first case study, a second case study, results discussion, future research directions and finally the chapter conclusion.

Fuzzy-Based Approach for Reducing the Impacts of Climate Changes on Agricultural Crops

2018 ◽  
pp. 88-110
Author(s):  
Ahmed M. Gadallah ◽  
Assem H. Mohammed
Keyword(s):  
Climate Changes ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Climate Data ◽  
Planting Dates ◽  
Third Phase ◽  
First Case ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Future Research Directions

Climate changes play a significant role in the crops plantation process. Such changes affect the suitability of planting of many crops in their traditional plantation dates in a given place. In contrary, many of such crops become more suitable for planting at other new dates in their traditional places or in other new places regarding the climate changes. This chapter presents a fuzzy-based approach for optimizing crops planting dates with the ongoing changes in climate at a given place. The proposed approach incorporates four phases. The first phase is concerned with climate data preparation. And the second phase is concerned with Defining suitability membership functions. While in third phase is responsible for automatic fuzzy clustering. Finally, the fourth phase is responsible for fuzzy selection and optimization for the more suitable plantation dates for each crop. This chapter consists of an introduction, related works, the proposed approach, a first case study, a second case study, results discussion, future research directions and finally the chapter conclusion.

scholarly journals Towards Effective Counseling Approaches and Contextual Factors Enhanced Diversity Collaboration

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.30) ◽  
pp. 242
Author(s):  
Mohamed Sharif Mustaffa ◽  
Md Rahimullah Miah ◽  
Amalia Madihie ◽  
Prashanth Talwar Yadar
Keyword(s):  
Parental Involvement ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Field Survey ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Training Models ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Effective Counseling ◽  
Counselling Approach

This study explored the counselling approach and contexual factors to enhance diversity collaborations among ethnic, religious people, teachers and parental involvement in Malaysian secondary schools. Specially, the study outlined cross-cultural counselling and related training approaches and effective factors that  needs in Malaysian society. In particular, the researcher investigated the effectiveness of multi-ethnicity of students and diversity of approaches in their counselling contexts. Qualitative data were obtained from field survey while secondary data collected from various sources. The study focuses the main difficulties  in general contexual literature, theoretical or ideological, and collaborative diversity approaches showing in the countries concerned. A qualitative case study approach was also represented on the experience of counsellors of eleven muslim schools in the Muar district through primary and secondary data analysis. The study recommended that effective counselling environment context enhanced diversity collaboration with their training models in various ways in relation to the contexual factors studied.  

scholarly journals The Pandemic Discourse: A Cross-Cultural Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 317 ◽  
pp. 01026
Author(s):  
Eman Abdallah Ali Khalfallah ◽  
Catur Keprianto
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Public Speech ◽  
Points Of View

The paper examines speech samples of 5 politicians, namely the presidents of Sudan, Brazil, United States, Indonesia and the British queen. Samples are taken from and specifically focused on public speech related to the events regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic. The goal of the research is to make a cross-cultural linguistic comparison based on the qualitative data. The methodology is anchored in discourse analysis of the speech samples and their interpretation. The examination has shown there are considerable individual and cultural differences between the studied subjects, which can be seen from the point of view of discourse analysis, especially in the context of power and media influence. Additionally, the paper suggests further possible points of view from which other disciplines might be used in order to build a more comprehensive understanding of the studied matter.

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